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Tortured 15-year-old Afghan bride was sent back to her husband and in-laws when she t

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/01/to...d-to-flee.html

Quote:

Tortured 15-year-old Afghan bride was sent back to her husband and in-laws when she tried to flee

"Even the local authorities have blamed the department for women's affairs for not trying to solve it locally between families in the traditional way."

Her other option would probably have been prison. Up to 350 woman and about 114 girls are known to be locked up for "moral crimes" in Afghanistan. Among the girls, "80 per cent are serving sentences for either running away from home or extramarital sex."

As was the case with Gulnaz, the rape victim finally pardoned from a sentence for adultery (after agreeing to marry the man who raped her), there are undoubtedly others like the girl in this story, Sahar Gul, inside and outside of jail.

"Tortured Afghan child bride had been sent back to in-laws," by Jon Boone for the Sydney Morning Herald, January 3:

A 15-year-old Afghan girl who was nearly tortured to death by her husband and his family attempted to escape from her attackers more than four months ago but was sent back home by local authorities, it has emerged.
Sahar Gul, a child bride married off to a soldier called Gulam Sakhi who then tried to force her into prostitution, is being treated for horrific injuries in a hospital in Kabul after she was rescued last week.
During her ordeal several of her fingernails were ripped out with pliers and one of her ears was badly burned by an iron. Her husband is now on the run, and her mother-in-law and sister-in-law have been arrested.
Her case has caused uproar in Afghanistan and Hamid Karzai, the country's President, has vowed that those responsible would be punished.
But disturbing new details about how the local community and authorities responded to her abuse has highlighted the ambivalence many Afghans have over how far women should be able to exercise the most basic of legal rights.
"She ran away to her neighbour's house and told them that her husband was trying to make her become a prostitute," said local community leader Ziaulhaq. " 'If you are a Muslim, you must tell the government what is happening to me,' she told them."
The locals said they did take the case to the authorities. When the police arrived Sahar's mother-in-law tried to fight them off, screaming all the while that her son had "bought" the girl who therefore had to do what she was told.
She appeared to be alluding to the dowry paid by Sakhi's family, a sum thought to be about $4000.
Locals say the family simply promised to stop hurting her. Ziaulhaq also alleged that bribes were paid to government officials to hush up the affair.
Although she emphatically denied money was paid, Rahima Zarifi, the women's affairs chief in Baghlan province, said she could not remember the details of the case, or why Sahar was sent back home.
The abuse resumed and continued for months until a male relative visited. When he found the girl, who had been starved in a locked basement for weeks, Sahar was almost unable to speak.
Fauzia Kufi, an MP who campaigns on women's issues, said that even then local authorities attempted to resolve the abuse through "traditional means".
"Basically they wanted the relative to sit down with his sister's abusers and work out an agreement," she said.
Kufi also claims there was strong pressure not to publicise the case.
"Many people don't take these sorts of crimes seriously and don't think it should be reported," she said.
"Even the local authorities have blamed the department for women's affairs for not trying to solve it locally between families in the traditional way."...

and here is a brief video:

http://www.emirates247.com/crime/wor...01-02-1.435393

this is so sad and really disgusting. I don't want to sound intolerant but this is why I find the spread of islam in European countries so horrifying. I know there must be some "good" aspects of this relgion but my God any constitution that allows for this sort of thing is just wrong.

This is another article I saw that is much older about a thirteen year old girl who sought a divorce from her 50something year old husband and was granted it, but had to return to her husband when he appealed the divorce and won:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2004/11/af...r-divorce.html

Quote:

Afghan girl, given as bride at 9, fights for divorce
This is the fruit of the example of the Prophet and Qur'an 4:34. From the Arizona Daily Star via Afgha.com, with thanks to Twostellas:

...Once again, her memories take control. Her father's selling her in marriage to a man five times her age to pay the rent; the beatings and sodomy that followed. She was 9 years old....
Pekay is 13 now, one of thousands of girls and women who are trapped in forced marriages, caught between the rural, tribal and Islamic customs that ruled the country for centuries and the promise of a new Afghanistan ruled by laws that apply equally to everyone.

Domestic violence is widespread, but most cases never go to court. The laws are weak, and women stay silent out of fear or shame: Divorce disgraces the family and the tribe. Each year, scores of Afghan women escape bad marriages by setting themselves on fire or other forms of suicide....

...Under Afghanistan's civil law, it's illegal for girls younger than 16 to marry. But the Supreme Court, led by conservative clerics and Islamic law, ruled that she can't get divorced, even from a violent child molester.

Her last hope is that Fazal Hadi Shinwari, the ultra-conservative chief justice of the Supreme Court, will reverse the decision.

"If he doesn't, I'll kill myself," said Pekay, who like many Afghans uses one name. "And I'll leave it up to God to punish the judges in the next world."

"Pay or give me your daughter"

Pekay is less than 5 feet tall and slight. Her nose is puffy and crooked from a thrashing. Her left cheekbone is higher than her right, as if a bone is out of place. Her lower lip is split.

She was smaller when she met Malik Muhammad four years ago. At 48, he was old enough to be her grandfather. He offered to rent a room in his house to Pekay's family.

Four months passed, and Muhammad never asked for the rent. Pekay's father, Muhammad Omar, was too poor to remind him. One day, Muhammad demanded the rent money: $80, a princely sum.

When Omar asked if he could pay in installments, Muhammad said, "You must pay me now or give me your daughter," Omar recalled. Four days later, Muhammad started planning a wedding.

"We had no choice," said Omar. "He was a Taliban intelligence agent. He was very powerful. He said if I didn't allow the marriage, he would take us to the Taliban central office and do the wedding there."

On her wedding night, Pekay was confused. Why was the man she called "uncle" taking her to his bedroom? Why was her mother so sad?

"I'll be back soon," she recalled telling her mother.

Smiling, she stepped in. Her new husband shut the door.

"I started to hear screams," recalled her mother, Qudbi. "I thought he was going to kill her."

The next morning, Muhammad refused to let Qudbi see Pekay. He'd chained her hands and legs to his bed, said Pekay. Four days later, he evicted her parents.

Pekay lived as a slave for the next 2 1/2 years. Muhammad locked her in a room, releasing her only to cook, clean and do the washing. He pounded her with sticks and rubber tubing. When he stopped beating her, he started raping her.

"I can't tell you what happened," Pekay said. "It's the type of thing that happens only with animals."

Muhammad, now 52, denies he abused Pekay, but his next-door neighbor, Zalmay Quasimi, remembers her screams....

Fifteen months ago, Pekay's parents finally went to the police. Officers raided Muhammad's house and found Pekay and his first wife, Samar. Dried blood stained the floor and chains dangled from a bedpost, according to court documents. The police took Muhammad into custody.

But Afghanistan's legal system, a mix of civil and sharia, Islamic law, still favors men. Once Muhammad proved he was Samar's and Pekay's husband, he was released. Samar was told to go with him. Because of her age, Pekay was returned to her parents pending a court decision.

Pekay and her parents went to Kabul's family court to get a divorce. Muhammad, in court documents, called the allegations "a massive lie."

But in front of two female judges, Pekay undressed and showed the marks around her waist from the chain that Muhammed used to bind her.

The court, filled with progressive young judges, granted her a divorce. Pekay was ecstatic.

Her joy, and her freedom, soon vanished.

Muhammad appealed the decision. The appeals court ruled in his favor, as did the Supreme Court.

Pekay was ordered to return to her husband or go to jail.

Supreme Court Justice Sayeed Omar Munib explained that sharia allows a father to marry off his daughter even if she's under 16. And Pekay hadn't met the standard of evidence - two witnesses who saw the abuse or a confession from her husband.

When asked why he didn't rule according to Afghanistan's civil law, Munib replied: "In Islam and sharia, it's not like that. Women are very smooth operators. If we let her get a divorce, then women will be encouraged to divorce their husbands if they see another man they like. We'll have a lot of divorces in our society."

When asked if he believed that women and men have equal rights, as Afghanistan's constitution states, Munib replied: "It's impossible. We are Muslims, and God has given a place for men and a place for women. We can't change that. Women don't have the same brains like men. They are very forgetful. They can't make big decisions. You should ask your own Western doctors about this. It has been proven that women are not like men."...

Wow. This is so f*cked up. I can see why you're upset by this. I am, too. But, unfortunately, that's the way this religion works. Women have no rights and must do as their men tell them to. It's horrible to see this happening.

Marriage of super young girls isn't just an Islamic thing. Lots of countries have this practice. India, Nepal, Mongolia...all have this practice. It is less about religion and more about how women are valued in that culture.

In India for instance, girls are considered a liability to their family and it is to the family's advantage to get them out as soon as possible. Marriage of 6 and 7 year olds is not condoned officially, but isn't uncommon in rural areas. Usually these marriages are to older men and done in order to settle debts of some sort.

It's sad, but until the views of women change in these cultures, it will continue.

Ah, yes, I forgot about that. And I agree that in these cultures, women aren't recognized as equal to men. It's definitely sad to see.

It's a damn tragedy, and sadly it ain't the first nor the last.

Some people really need a taste of their own medicine

They need some vigilante's over there. Maybe not, but it's a cool thought.

Isn't it twisted that they cling to religion like that? Yikes.

Let's not forget that this happens in the USA as well.

I am very disturbed by these things and make me grateful that I live in America, but I am not completely shocked by this.